What is going on at the Department of Veterans Affairs - the VA?  Can't they do anything right?  The VA is admitting to what it calls "burial mix-ups" at VA cemeteries in six states, including Texas.

Unfortunately, the Houston VA Cemetery is not the only place where those kinds of "mistakes" are happening.  It's a national problem.

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VA officials say employees at the Houston National Cemetery accidentally put 14 grave markers in the wrong places in 2002.  The headstones were offset by one grave site. As a result, one person was buried in the wrong plot in 2006.

A spokesperson says the mistake was discovered in November during a review of a grave site map in preparation for a burial.

The VA information officer says “Houston National Cemetery staff are contacting the families affected and members of Congress to apologize for the errors and to explain the necessary corrective actions.”

"We apologize to the families affected by these errors. With over 79,000 interments of veterans and immediate dependents at Houston National Cemetery, we continually strive to operate the best cemetery system in the world, and there is no excuse for these errors.”

Similar burial errors also have been found at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, where contractors misplaced 47 markers during renovations, resulting in four people later being buried in the wrong grave sites.

The VA launched a national investigation of VA cemeteries on the heels of a burial records scandal at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. In addition to the cemeteries in Texas, problems have been discovered at cemeteries in Ohio, New Mexico, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

 

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